The strategy of moving home energy intelligence into the cloud is disrupting the Smart Home market and expanding opportunities for the Home Area Network, according to global technology research firm ON World.

IP based home automation services, a large web-centric developer community and accelerating Smart Grid initiatives are driving adoption for home energy management solutions. By the end of 2012, there will be over a million managed Smart Home systems installed in North America. For some service providers, 40 percent of customers are choosing energy management as part of their Smart Home service bundles.

"Widespread home networks and the ubiquity of smart mobile devices are key drivers for home energy management services," says Mareca Hatler, ON World's research director. "Smart home service providers are adding real-time energy monitoring and cloud-based energy services that consumers are increasingly likely to access and control using their smartphones and tablets."

Compared with ON World's last survey of early technology adopters in September 2010, almost two times as many of the respondents to the current survey, completed in January 2012, indicate that they would prefer to use their tablet or smartphone as their energy display or interface.

Another growing trend is the development of "set-and-forget" solutions that provide effortless energy savings. Over 70% of the recent survey respondents indicate that "automated systems that require minimal time/effort" are an important consideration for home energy management products and services.

In 2016, global home energy management (HEM) revenues will be $4.3 billion and cloud service revenues will increase 30 times from 2011. Home service providers and retail channels will make up 57% of the cloud-based energy services at this time.

Based on 900 phone interviews and surveys with consumers, utilities, home service providers and developers, ON World's recently published set of reports includes the following:

More information and a free executive summary is available from: http://www.onworld.com/smartenergyhomes

About ON World:
ON World Inc. provides world class business intelligence on smart technology markets. Our market research and information services are sold to Fortune 1000 companies, service providers, venture capitalists, and startups worldwide. Website: http://www.onworld.com.

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